A micro reactor device has, for example, a tubular reactor having a small diameter. By causing various reaction species to pass through the reactor as a flow path, various reactions, such as production of materials and catalyst reactions, are caused. In the micro reactor device, walls of the reactor (reactor wall) have a large surface area with respect to reactor volume, and a diffusion distance (a distance between the reaction species passing through the reactor and the reactor wall) is short. With this structure, by causing the reactor wall to support a catalyst, for example, it is possible to increase area of contact between the reaction species and the catalyst, and thereby allow for high-efficiency catalyst reactions. Therefore, the micro reactor device is regarded as a promising catalyst reactor device.
It is a common practice to cause the reactor wall to support the catalyst by a sol-gel method, in using the micro reactor device as a catalyst reactor device as described above.
However, according to this supporting method, an area on which the catalyst is supported is only as large as the surface area of the reactor wall of the reactor as a flow path. As a result, there is a problem that only a limited amount of catalyst can be supported.
Even if the amount of catalyst is increased by causing the reactor wall to support a thicker layer of catalyst, there is a problem that almost only the catalyst exposed on the surface of the catalyst layer can be used for catalyst reactions, because a significant pressure loss is caused inside the catalyst layer.
If it is necessary to control a very short reaction time, such as a partial oxidization time, a diffusion time of the reaction species in the catalyst varies. Therefore, there is a problem that a contact time varies, resulting in various kinds of reaction products.
Moreover, the method of supporting the catalyst has a problem that complex operation is required in order to expose the catalyst directly to the reactor wall.
The present invention was made in view of the foregoing problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a micro reactor device having an inner wall modified so that reaction species can react more efficiently, and to provide the micro reactor device.